MAXEY FLAT is an album with a story at its core. We grew up near one of the most hazardous nuclear waste deposits in the country: Maxey Flat. Built shoddily by folks trying to get rich quick, the disastrous site became a part of local mythology. Every kid heard about the two-headed frogs, irradiated possums, and glowing toxic runoff. On the school bus, we traded tall tales about deformed beasts and sickened children. As adults, it became clear that Maxey Flat was part of a long history of Appalachian pillagers sacrificing the future for short term gains: coal companies, deforesters, polluters, redevelopers, pharmaceutical companies. It’s a vicious cycle of destruction and desperation.

MAXEY FLAT’s story is a sort of dream-vison that bubbled up from that cauldron of folklore, environmental tragedy, and intergenerational betrayal. We hope the outline that follows will enrich the listening experience by sparking your cinematic imagination.

01 Off the Diving Board
Alice, 8, at a busy community pool on a warm, early summer afternoon. After jumping in over and over, she tries to hold her breath underwater as long as she can. When she emerges, the air buzzes with energy. She sees her mother, Rachel, looking on.

02 Peanut Butter Milkshake
Rachel pulls out of the local Frosty Freeze, headlights cutting through the dusk. In the backseat, Alice sips on her milkshake. The windows are down and cross breezes flow through the car as the trees rush by. Alice’s hair flutters and her eyelids grow heavy.

03 Little Stars
Alice’s room, lit by glow-in-the-dark stars and a lamp. Rachel stands near the foot of the bed, watching her little girl drift away. She hums a lullaby, one Alice loves. Dreams start to wash over Alice. Rachel turns off the lamp and pulls the door closed, leaving a crack.

04 Graveyard Shift
3 AM at Maxey Flat. Fred, the nightwatchman, pours coffee from an old thermos. The lights flicker. Happens all the time. Fred finds his place in a bent-up paperback and resumes reading. A thudding crash, far away. Another flicker. Power’s out. All dark now.

05 The Big Blanket
Inside the dump, under the cap, something is building. A heat, wafting and pushing. Expanding, vibrating, throttling the layers of soil and rubber. Finally, a fissure. Warm, noxious vapors surge through the opening, silently spilling into the sky.

06 Down Cranston
Alice squints groggily out the window of her school bus as it rolls along the bends and hills of Cranston Road. Sunlight pierces through a thick morning fog. The hazy mass emerges from the trees into the valleys. It’s unlike any fog Alice has ever seen.

07 Billowing
As the children file into school, the wall of vapor rushes toward them. Alice stops and turns. When the air reaches her skin, she feels burning. She looks around. All of the children—their skin. It’s melting off. One after the other, they all collapse.

08 The Only Car on Main Street
Rachel can’t get ahold of anyone. The hospitals are full. The police are overwhelmed. Every store is closed. Not a soul on Main Street. She parks the car and opens the door, wishing the vapors would take her, too. But, they only take the children. She weeps.

09 Glowing Through Trees
Moonlit trees, still in the forest. Slowly, illuminated shapes appear. Hundreds, thousands among the trees. The children. Or, at least, some part of each of them. Something undying, unable to rest. They converge as they approach Maxey Flat.

10 To Sleep in the Void
The spirits, Alice among them. Their luminous bodies glide through the fencing. Together, they descend, merging into the poisoned earth. A surging rumble rattles everything. The powers flickers out again. Fred steps outside his darkened security building, flashlight in hand. All quiet. He looks out on the site. Its strange glow fades.